Confucius in the machine

In November, Xi Jinping moved one step closer to becoming China’s paramount leader for life. But as internal and external crises continue to threaten his hold on power, he is increasingly relying on help from China’s ideology czar—Wang Huning

- NAVIN J. ANTONY, VAISAKH E.H. AND NIRMAL JOVIAL

In 2017, a small Chinese town steeped in history hosted a thousand technophiles from across the world. They gathered in a great hall, where they were welcomed by a thin, bespectacled government official from Beijing. “Greetings, honoured guests,” said the official. “Welcome to the grandly beautiful, thousand-year-old Chinese town of Wuzhen in Zhejiang province, to attend the fourth edition of the World Internet Conference. On behalf of Chairman Xi Jinping, I express sincere regards to all of you and warm congratulations for the opening of the conference.”

The guests included CEOs Tim Cook of Apple and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, senior executives of chipmaker Qualcomm and several other American technology giants, and the legendary Robert Kahn, electrical engineer and a founding father of the internet. The World Internet Conference, which Wuzhen hosts every year, is China’s foremost technology convention where internet governance and policies are discussed. Xi was surprisingly absent this year, but he had dispatched the senior official to deliver the inaugural address on his behalf.

The official, Wang Huning, had for long been part of the Communist Party of China’s top rung of leaders, but few people outside the country knew him. At Wuzhen, he was making his first public speech to a global audience in decades.